Plot - a vigilante father (Bronson) deals out
pistol-shoot justice to youthful scalawags who've brutally raped and killed his daughter and house keeper.
The 90-minutes amounts to an almost unrelieved succession of blood, gore, grime, and sex. Then too it cashes in on Bronson's squinty-eyed tough guy even if he is nearing 60. Actually, for a Hollywood change, it's good to see an ugly-mug near-geezer in a starring role.
At bottom, the flick raises two important societal questions but slides over them at the same time. Looks like the producers couldn't resist depicting the brutal violence of rape without the distraction of tittilating nudity. That may just be my male hormones, but seems to me the often raw violence of rape could have been more effectively portrayed without the distracting Playboy shots.
Then too, vigilante justice goes seriously unquestioned since Kersey (Bronson) has no trouble picking out the true culprits from the crowds along LA's grimy skid row. Thus, he deals out a kind of justice when law enforcement can't. No problem here of mistaken identity for Kersey or the movie. Except there's a reason for legally enforced Due Process and that's to try to ensure that the innocent are not punished for a crime they didn't commit. Sure, the process is a sometimes messy bureaucratic affair, but at least the problem is acknowledged. But not so in the movie where Kersey implausibly has no problems picking out the guilty.
Had the movie dealt more seriously with these two gripping issues, I'd have some respect for it. As is, however, the flick's little more than an exploitative tough-guy showcase. Too bad.
The 90-minutes amounts to an almost unrelieved succession of blood, gore, grime, and sex. Then too it cashes in on Bronson's squinty-eyed tough guy even if he is nearing 60. Actually, for a Hollywood change, it's good to see an ugly-mug near-geezer in a starring role.
At bottom, the flick raises two important societal questions but slides over them at the same time. Looks like the producers couldn't resist depicting the brutal violence of rape without the distraction of tittilating nudity. That may just be my male hormones, but seems to me the often raw violence of rape could have been more effectively portrayed without the distracting Playboy shots.
Then too, vigilante justice goes seriously unquestioned since Kersey (Bronson) has no trouble picking out the true culprits from the crowds along LA's grimy skid row. Thus, he deals out a kind of justice when law enforcement can't. No problem here of mistaken identity for Kersey or the movie. Except there's a reason for legally enforced Due Process and that's to try to ensure that the innocent are not punished for a crime they didn't commit. Sure, the process is a sometimes messy bureaucratic affair, but at least the problem is acknowledged. But not so in the movie where Kersey implausibly has no problems picking out the guilty.
Had the movie dealt more seriously with these two gripping issues, I'd have some respect for it. As is, however, the flick's little more than an exploitative tough-guy showcase. Too bad.